Ba-Da-Ba-Baaaaaa! Local firm updates 'Monday Night Football' theme for ESPN.

SINCE the legacies of Howard Cosell, "Dandy" Don Meredith and Frank Gifford survive today, why not bring the 'Monday Night Football" soundtrack into the 21st century, too? As part of a massive promotional blitz designed to capitalize on its acquisition of TV football franchise, ESPN has commissioned three new versions of its iconic theme music, the one that goes "BaDa-Ba-Baaaaaaaaa."

ESPN is hosting the National Football League's Monday night games for the first time, replacing ABC, which was the home of the package since its inception in 1970. Having committed more than $8 billion to land the 36-year-old football fixture, the cable network is pulling out all the stops to maximize its investment, hoping to broaden its viewer base and attract an even younger demographic.

The new takes on the theme--a song titled "Heavy Action" that was composed by Johnny Pearson and chosen as the "MNF" theme back in 1971--are a big part of the campaign.

That's all good news for Associated Production Music LLC, or APM, the Hollywood-based joint venture of music publishing heavyweights the EMI Group and the Bertlesman Music Group. While most outside the entertainment industry are unaware of APM's existence, the company is a giant in its space. With more than 200,000 tracks in its library, it owns the world's largest collection of original production music--that recorded specifically for use in television or movies--including some of the world's most recognizable theme music. When ESPN got the Monday night goods, APM negotiated a multi-year deal to license the theme exclusively to the sports network, as it had with ABC.

"The track has always done very well for us, and ESPN is using it much more than ABC ever did," said APM President Adam Taylor. "It's a big theme for them, and they're using it all over the place, in cross-promotions, advertising campaigns, and ring tones."

To play host to the popular Monday night games, ESPN is paying about $1.1 billion a year under its eight-year deal, according to NFL reports last year. That amount is twice what ABC--ESPN's corporate sibling at the Walt Disney Co.--had been paying. The accompanying "MNF" ad campaign is designed not only to pull in longtime Monday night fans but engage a younger demographic already familiar with ESPN's programming.

Enter APM, which carefully planned and precisely executed the updates to the sport's best-known theme after ESPN approached it about the revamps late last year.

"When people ask for the song they ask for it as the Monday Night Football theme, not by title," said Claude Mitchell, ESPN's coordinating director of music. "It's distinctly identifiable; the whole (Monday Night Football) brand identifies with it."

The collaboration began in earnest early this year. ESPN wanted to give the theme an edgier, younger sound, Mitchell said. APM finished re-arranging and re-recording "Heavy Action" for ESPN in May, with a 60-piece orchestra and updated rock sounds, then entered the mixing phase of the project, from which three distinct versions of the song emerged. The network was careful not to abandon the original appeal of the piece. In addition to the edgier version; there is a second version with "Mission: Impossible"-type sound and a third with a classic orchestral update.

"Monday Night Football has a huge legacy in the 35 years ABC had it, there is a lot of fan loyalty and equity in that for us," Mitchell said. "It has a similar feel, we just wanted to breathe in a little new life and modernize it, but still wanted it to appeal to a very broad audience."

If the early television ratings are an indicator, it's working. The "MNF" opener garnered ESPN's largest audience ever, delivering more than 9 million homes for the first time.

The biggest player in its half-a-billion-worldwide industry niche, APM makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year licensing tracks from the company's 25-category collection., broken down by genres such as jazz and electronica. The collection was established in 1983.

By ANNE RILEY-KATZ

Staff Reporter